Apple Event – September 2016

The Apple Event started off with Tim Cook doing Carpool Karaoke which was a nice way of advertising new episodes of the show which will soon be available on iTunes.

After entering the stage with his new light-up glasses, Tim started off with updates.

Updates

Apple Music festival is coming to London at the end of September. It will take place in the Roundhouse in Camden. The event celebrates 10 years of concerts with 10 nights of free music, including those 8 years spent being called the iTunes Festival.

The line-up is pretty good and it’s free. All you have to do is enter through your iTunes account.

Appstore – this was definitely one of the highlights of the conference. Nintendo have agreed to work with Apple, and Mario will be available on the Appstore! The game will be called Super Mario Run and looks every bit as awesome as it sounds.

Nintendo also announced an Apple Watch version of the mobile game Pokémon Go. There will be a Pokémon Go wearable that will let you catch pokémon and visit pokéstops. The Watch OS app is more about spotting pokémon than catching them; you clearly still have to pull out your phone from time to time. But the app gives wearers visual feedback that Nintendo’s simple watchband can’t. And it makesPokémon Go’s egg-hatching feature, which encourages players to go out for walks, more convenient and accurate.

Education. Here Tim talked about how much ConnectED has done to bring technology to underprivileged schools. He also reminded us about the very exciting new app coming later on this year – SWIFT. This is something I really cannot wait to see.

iWork has also been updated to give you, even more options to collaborate with your team. thanks to the programs being accessible via Mac, iPad, iPhone and Web it’s even easier to work together on projects. We were shown how easy it is for multiple people to update a presentation live.

Apple Watch series 2

The new Series 2 Watch is water resistant up to 50m. This change involved sealing off every possible point of entry except the watch’s speaker, which is supposedly designed in a way that will push water out using vibrations. The new display is 2x brighter than the first series making it easier to see outdoors. It will also be available in a new Ceramic case.

It also has built-in GPS, which makes it much more runner- and hiker-friendly — it means the watch can still find your location if you’re in a cellular dead zone. this was announced together with a new hiking app Viewranger

Apple Watch Nike + designed for runners. The Nike Sport Band is made from the same durable, lightweight fluoroelastomer as the original Apple Watch Sport Band, the Nike Sport Band reduces weight and improves ventilation via row after row of compression‑molded perforations. Exclusive Nike watch faces designed specifically for Apple Watch feature Nike’s iconic Volt color and boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles. There’s also a permanent complication for launching the Nike+ Run Club app.

iOS 10

iOS 10 is officially coming out on September 13th, bringing the next major iOS update to users. This release represents one of the biggest iOS has ever seen. It means particularly big things for Siri, which has gotten smart enough to handle image searches and handle transcribing voicemails. Users will see more widgets and better notifications like bubble effects in iMessage, new stickers that you can drag&drop etc. Apple has extended Continuity to include Universal Clipboard, which lets you copy text and images on your phone and paste them on your Mac. Home Kit that manages accessories in the whole house is getting 100 more home products this year.

macOS Sierra

Although it didn’t make an appearance at yesterday’s keynote, macOS’s next update, Sierra, will officially launch on September 20th

iPhone 7

This is the update that we were all waiting for.

Design – a new Jet Black and Black finish to be available next to Gold, Silver and Rose Gold.

iPhone 7 Plus will have two 12mp cameras with an optical zoom 10x. This will enable shallow depth of field photography generated in real-time – so you can see the image with the blurred background straight away.

Earphones – Apple announced that they’re removing the 3.5mm jack. The included headphones will work over Apple’s Lightning standard. That means you won’t be able to connect your favourite headphones to the next iPhone without an adapter (which will be included in the box).

Airpods. Apple has developed its own standard to allow wireless headphones to connect to the new iPhones seamlessly using its own W1 chip, without needing to pair like you would with Bluetooth. You just have to open the container next to your phone and a notification box pops up automatically. Although the Airpods charge up for about 5 hours of listening – the box itself, when charged, can give them an extra 24 hours of recharging.

Applepay – will be available in Japan

Performance – New A10 Fusion chip is 40% faster that the older A9 chip. Console level gaming. Battery life is longer by around 2 hours.

The last exciting news is that the iPhone Upgrade Program is coming to the UK soon. Thanks to this you can own an iPhone from £33.45/month. You no longer need to wait for your carrier contract to end to change your phone. After 11 payments, you can get a new iPhone and simply start the programme again with your new choice of model, colour or storage capacity.

Sadly, there was no news on a new MacBook which we were all hoping for – maybe next year.